RARE JUG IS STOLEN

By Leo H. Carney

Published: June 7, 1987

THE Monmouth County Historical Association is trying to recover what officials say is an unusual and valuable stoneware jug recently stolen from a display at the association's headquarters on Court Street in Freehold.

The salt-glazed jug, valued at $2,000, was made between 1852 and 1859 in Matawan, one of the county's earliest 17th-century settlements and one that served during the 1850's as a major shipping link to Manhattan, about 20 miles away.

Sarah H. Heald, curator of collections for the association, said in a telephone interview last week that the jug, 9 1/2 inches high, was ''quite a unique piece,'' even though it appeared no different from numerous other 19th-century ceramic jugs.

Like many of these collectible pieces, she said, the stolen jug was gray with blue designs and writing. However, Mrs. Heald said, while most of the jugs have swirling floral patterns or birds emblazoned on them, the stolen one had a human figure (a man in a band uniform playing a horn).

''The more typical jug of this sort is the same in color and form,'' Mrs. Heald said, ''but you very rarely see a human figure. That is what makes it valuable and is probably the same reason it was taken.''

The jug was inscribed ''Safe in the arms of James,'' an apparent reference to James Van Schoick, one of the owners of Van Schoick and Dunn Pottery of Matawan. The community was known as Middletown Point before its incorporation in 1857.

According to historical references, the pottery company operated between 1852 and 1859 and was along either Matawan Creek or Raritan Bay. This was during the height of Middletown Point's commercial activity, which included shipping New Jersey farm goods to New York.

Mrs. Heald said the stolen jug was probably commemorative of the municipal band that played in those days.

Officials of the association have been distributing photographs of the jug and have given the police descriptions of two men suspected of having taken it.

A composite drawing of one of the men was made and is being distributed. He is described as being of average height and weight with fair skin and about 30 years old. The other suspect is about the same age, but tall with a husky build, dark hair and a dark beard.

Mrs. Heald said that the jug, which was insured, was taken on May 22 from the third floor of the association's three-story building. She declined to say how association officials knew of the suspects and their descriptions.

The association's total collection comprises 15,000 objects, of which 50 are stoneware.